Make a Book, Tell Your Story

Oakland International High School is a new public high school for recent immigrants to the US. Located in Temescal, there are over 330 students speaking over 32 different languages, and most of them have only very recently arrived here. These students are all English-Language learners at the same time they are trying to learn all their high school curriculum, and many of them have never had any formal education before OIHS.

Some of OIHS’ 9th and 10th graders are coming to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire with a very cool project–a mini book lab.

With their Art teacher, Brooke Toczylowski, they have created personal Art Journals, and in World History with Teacher Verónica Garcia the students have made geography books about their home countries. They’ll show you theirs and they’ll teach you how to make some too.

This is an example journal from the students’ art class. This is used as a sketchbook and research workbook. This student is from Yemen, and has placed the US flag on one cover and the Yemen flag on the other, to tell a story about her identity and journey.